Kathleen Rice

Will you each commit today to adding a page on your website to report daily the number of COVID-positive employees at each of your facilities used for immigration detention operations?

Subcommittee Chair Rice requested that each contractor represented at the hearing post a tracker on its website giving daily updates on COVID-19 cases in its facilities.

Detention facilities must be held to a high standard at all times, but in this moment, it is of vital importance.

The bottom line is that much more needs to be done to stop the spread of the coronavirus at these facilities.

That is a large amount of taxpayer money, which is funding a historically high number of detention beds, and it demands oversight and accountability.

We know that ICE detainees are still being transferred between detention facilities around the country, which is inevitably contributing to the spread of this virus.

I urge each one of ICE's detention contractors to be more aggressive in their response to COVID-19.

The clearest way to prevent the spread of this disease in facilities is to pursue alternatives to detention and release those detainees who pose no threat to communities.

Last month intelligence officials warned Members of Congress that Russia is again interfering in the 2020 Presidential election. Do you condemn these attacks from the Russian Government to interfere in American elections?

the construction of a border wall will not stop the influx of drugs into our country, will be an unnecessary cost to taxpayers, and as we will discuss today, will have an irreversible impact on the rights of U.S. citizens and Native…

the American public will not be fooled by this President's authoritarian actions and word games intended to hide the bad behavior of his administration.

No Secretary, no matter the purpose or intent, should have the ability to waive every law in their entirety with the stroke of a pen.

I now ask each witness to summarize his statement for 5 minutes, beginning with Mr. Anzaldua.

The reckless waiving of crucial Federal laws puts the people who live along our Southern Border at unnecessary risk and does not enhance our border security.

I am eager to hear from today's witnesses who have first-hand experience with the consequences border communities face due to the hasty construction of a border wall.

we do know and have seen that it will irreparably harm real people and the land they live on.

it seems to me that this is, once again, an attempt by this administration, specifically Donald Trump, who formerly was a New Yorker, to punish New York.

It is ensuring that this is taught as a fact of history.

We must act urgently to ensure that the policies and decisions that contributed to these tragic deaths are addressed.

Even one death in custody is a tragedy.

We are well within our Constitutional obligation of having a role in oversight.

We must never forget Jakelin, Felipe, Darlyn, Juan, Wilmer, and Carlos, and we must never let this happen to another child again.

There are people in positions above you who don't show up, who don't answer the call, which is their duty.

We must never forget their names, their suffering, or the terrible losses their families had to endure.

I want to thank Mr. Hastings and Dr. Eastman for coming today.